Knitting machine



Jah. 29, 1935. v H s HORR'QCKS l 1,989,617

` KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 6, 1952 y ,Z5 I Z5 il gmc/who@ .fabric, and

Patented Jan. 29, 1935 UNITED STATES s 1,989,617 l xNrrrmGl MACHINE Harry S. Homks, Philadclphia,`Pa., assignor to H. Brinton Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania japanse@ Julys, 1932,v serial No. 621,076 s claims. (c1. 66-6) i My invention relates to a machine for making a fabric of the type having non-knitted yarns incorporated therein in such a manner that loops `of the non-knitted material standout from the face of the fabric. The machine is designed primarily to provide means whereby strips of cellophane may be incorporated in a fabric, which stripsby reason of the nature of the material will form loops that standout prominently and which, because of the stiffness' and resiliency of the material and because of its gloy and light reecting properties, impart a highly ornamental appearance to the fabric. It will be understood however, that I do notlimit myself to the use of cellophane as an inlay nor rto the use of any speciic materials as a backing orbody fabric nor is it essential that the non-knitted yarn shall stand out from the face of the fabric in loops.

Referring to the drawing, which is made a part of this application and in which similar reference characters indicate similar parts:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a portion of a machine, preferably of the open top circular type,

Fig. 2, a diagrammatic plan of a portion of the,

Fig. 3,-a'section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

In the drawing, reference character indicates a design wheel cam which is followed in succession by a lljng cam 11, a cushion cam 12 and a filling cam 13, all of which are or may be of conventional character, all these cams being mounted on a cam ring as usual. A de` sign wheel 14 is positioned to elevate those needles whose butts engage solid orlled-in places on the wheel, as indicated at 15 whereas needles such as shown at 16 have passed through notches in the wheel and are not elevated at this time. The needles 15 are elevated sumciently by the design wheel to enable them to' take an inlay yarn indicated at 18 from a guide 18 and thereafter they are drawn down to normal idle position bya stitch camv 19, drawing their yarns down over conventional sinkers such-as indicated at 20 thus holding portions of the laid-in yarn at one sideof the fabric while floats are formed at the other side, the length of the floats depending `on the number of needles between successive needles l5. The inlaid yarn between needles 15 lies at the back of needles 17 because the knitting is done on a circular machine Aand so the oats between needles 15 lie in straight lines or chords subtending arcs of the needle circle.

, At the feed just described, no knitting is performed but loops of inlay yarn are drawn bythose needles which are'selected for elevation.;Hf y

by the design wheel, it being understoodthat other types of selecting means may be used in place of the design wheel, such for example as the trick wheel and jacks shown in Ames Patent .5

No. 1,722,989. After passing thisfeedthe needles travel relatively to the cams to another feed l where all the needles are elevated by a'knitting 2l to a position where they take a body yarn 22 supplied byia guide 22.'. After taking 10 the yarn, all the needles are drawn down`by` a stitch'cam 23 after which they are elevated by cushion cam' 12 to relievel the strain on the yarn and pass on to theposition vshown at the left in 1, it being understood that any de-v sirable number of feeds may be used according to the'size of the machine.

In Figs. 2 and 3, the bodv fabric is indicated at 24 in purely conventionalmanner without attempting to illustrate the stitch formation and the inlay yarn is shown as having loops 25 projecting to some distance beyond one face of the fabric, this face being at the inside of the fabric tube when being knitted on the machine. Loops 25 are .connected by portions 26 indicated in dotted lines in Fig.2 and lying at the outside of the fabric tube when the fabric is on the machine. The inner face ofthe fabric tube when on the machine becomes the exposed face when the fabric is in use. While I do'not regard it as essential to myv invention that the needle elevating means for i causing needles to take the non-knitted yarn shall have the capacity of selectivity inY the sense of being itself variable, vit is obvious that such variability is highly desirable for changing patterns and is inherent in the construction of thev Ames patent above referred to, as also in those design wheels of well-known type having removable inserts. Furthermore, the use of design 40- I in the specification but only as indicated in the appended claims.

Having thus fully described my said invention,

what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a knitting machine, a series of identical independent' needles, means at a point along the series for supplying a main yarn, means at a relatively remote point for supplying a yarn to be inlaid in the fabric without forming knitted stitches, means including a rotary selector wheel acting directly on the needles for operating needles selectively to draw loops of the yarn to be inlaid, and means for subsequently causing all the needles to knit stitches of the main yarn, thereby forming tied-in lioats of the inlaid unknitted yarn.

2. In a knitting machine, a series of identical independent needles, means at ay point along the series for supplying a main yarn, means at a relatively remote point for supplying a yarn to be inlaid n the fabric without forming knitted stitches, means including a rotary selector wheel acting directly on the needles for operating needles to draw loops of the yarn to be inlaid, and means for subsequently causing the needles to knit a course of stitches of the main yarn, thereby forming tied-in floats of the inlaid unknitted yarn.

3. In a circular independent latch needle multiple feed knitting machine, a set of identical needles, a rotary selector wheel at a feed acting directly on the needles to raise needles selectively during the knitting of a course and to raise a different selection of needles during the knitting of another course to a yarn-taking level below the latch-clearing level whereby the raised namedzfeed is incorporated into the fabric withsaid auxiliary feed during theknitting of a course to draw a strand into a position where it will be at the rear side of the non-selected needles when said non-selected needles are raised and for selecting other needles during another course for the same purpose, and means at a subsequent feed for actuating the needles to cause them to knit a course of stitches -whereby the first-named strand is incorporated into the fabric in unknitted relation said first-named strand remaining so unknitted throughout its length.

5. In a circular independent needle knitting machine having a series of needles, the combination of means for feeding a strand to be knitted, an auxiliary strand feeding station remote from such means, means for actuating needles selectively at said auxiliary station including pattern means controlling the needles individually to cause selected needles to be elevated during the knitting of a course and to cause a different selection of needles to be elevated during the knitting of another course and means for lowering said needles to a point short of the casting-off level wherebysaid needles draw a strand into a position where it will be behind the non-selected needles when said non-selected needles are raised, and means at a subsequent strand feeding station for actuating both selected and non-selected needles to cause them to knit a course of stitches, whereby the strand supplied at said auxiliary feeding station is incorporated into the fabric in unknitted relation said strand remaining so unknitted throughout its length.

- HARRY S. HORROCKS. 

